


The Jaguar Sun

by HerBrazenElegance



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Bathing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2127825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerBrazenElegance/pseuds/HerBrazenElegance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mink and Aoba take a bath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Jaguar Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tigerine (sealink)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sealink/gifts).



> Worked on this for about two days and then decided it was good. I didn't have anyone beta and I also didn't proofread too heavily before throwing it here, so h aha I'm sorry if there are errors. I'm not used to writing this way yet. I might come back and fix them later. Also that title doesn't mean much, it's just a song I listened to a lot while writing this.

"I’m gonna fall."

"You won’t fall."

"I’m drunk," Aoba says. "It’s dark. I’m gonna fall."

Mink grunts and pushes forward regardless, weaving with ease through the thin smattering of pine and alder leading to his most recently finished project — a small, one-story steam house with a single window to the main room. Aoba had insisted they celebrate his achievement this evening at their home, a suggestion Mink had been reluctant to go along with at first given their, admittedly ancient, history with intoxication, but somewhere between Aoba’s second and third glass he had decided watching his love enjoy himself would be much easier if he loosened up.

So, towels in hand and allmates safely settled in like children for the night, they make their way into the entryway of the steam house and close the door. Heat already filters into the smaller room from the bath, prepped from earlier in the evening.

Mink neatly places their towels on a bench attached to the wall and motions for Aoba to sit down. Aoba gratefully obliges, wobbling as he sits, and Mink begins to carefully remove the beads and feathers woven into his bright hair.

"This is a bad idea," Aoba mumbles.

"This is your idea," Mink reminds him.

"But you listened to me."

"Don’t make it my fault." Mink pulls out the last of Aoba’s beads and stands up, unraveling his own. "I do as you ask."

Aoba runs his fingers through his own hair, massaging his scalp softly as he pushes it away from his drink-reddened face. “You do take care of me.”

Mink doesn’t respond. He takes his ornaments and places them next to Aoba’s on the bench and begins unbuttoning his shirt. Aoba shifts uncomfortably, glancing several times at Mink’s display as if it were the first time he’d seen him undress. Mink doesn’t say a word to him until he’s already folded up his clothes next to their discarded ornaments and towels and opens up the door to the main bath. A noticeable wave of heat spills out into the smaller room, though Mink hardly reacts.

"You’ll be miserable if you keep your clothes on," he says.

"I know," Aoba responds shyly.

Mink waits in the threshold for a moment before offering his help in undressing him, at which an even more red-faced Aoba rejects and stands up just to prove how capable he is. In a drunken state, however, the removal of clothing is much less graceful than he intends, and Mink comes over to help anyway.

"Do we have to be naked?" Aoba asks, steadying himself with Mink’s hand as he pulls down his pants.

"Are you that embarrassed?" Mink asks quietly. Then he adds, "I could turn the lights off."

"I can see that ending well," Aoba remarks sarcastically.

"You wouldn’t see anything, actually."

It takes a moment, but Aoba catches his humor and releases his helping hand, staring up at him instead with his hands on his hips and a look of mild disapproval. Mink watches him with the slightest of smiles and puts a broad hand at Aoba’s lower back.

Leaning in toward Aoba’s ear, he says in what might be a playful voice, “You’re not very threatening with your cock out like that.”

Aoba flushes immediately and is about to argue when Mink simply turns away, reopens the door to the bath, and crosses the threshold without an invitation for Aoba to follow, though he does anyway. He catches a brief glimpse of the general size and shape of the room, the benches lining the walls in two rows, the stove similar to the one that heats their home but with rocks carefully stacked and bound to it, before the lights go out, and for a minute he thinks it’s an electrical issue, but then Mink approaches him calmly and takes his hand, guiding him toward a place to relax. Aoba sits as directed, blind and clueless in the dark as Mink shifts plastic-sounding containers around and occasionally splashes water on the floor. Then there’s a rush of water pouring over something boiling hot, and then steam, so much steam all at once that it feels aggressive and suffocating and way too much, but when Mink places a shallow tub of water at Aoba’s side and sits down along with it, Aoba has enough faith in himself to keep it together.

"Here," Mink suddenly says, and Aoba is handed a dripping cloth. The water on it is ice cold, but the sobering relief it brings as he presses it to his face is a godsend. He holds it over his mouth for a breath of air that doesn’t burn his lungs, but only seconds pass before the rag is warm again.

"I’m so hot," Aoba admits loudly, and even in the dark he can still see the way Mink shakes his head at such an obvious comment.

"It’s been minutes," Mink remarks, equally as obvious, but he relents. "Stand up."

They stand together, Aoba with more grace now, though he still has to hold Mink’s arm due to the darkness, and Mink dips into the tub with his own rag. The cold startles Aoba again when Mink rubs the cloth over his back and shoulders, but again it morphs into a relief that slowly takes away what intoxication he feels. It’s an intimate gesture, Mink taking care of him like this, and Aoba has learned over time to consider and appreciate the closeness more than many of their sexual experiences — although those were certainly fond memories as well.

Mink stops, and Aoba assumes it’s his turn to reciprocate, but Mink steadies him with his hand as if to say “Hold still,” so Aoba obeys. Then that icy sting trickles down from the top of his head to his face and neck, slowly of course, and it’s warm again before it reaches his ankles, but it still forces Aoba to involuntarily gasp.

Mink relents, and the water stops. “Good?”

"For now," Aoba answers, and he returns to sitting and holding the rag over his face. Mink gives a pleased hmph and focuses on himself then, gathering his hair over one shoulder and pouring the icy water over his head slowly. By now, Aoba’s eyes have adjusted somewhat to the darkness, taking in the little moonlight offered by the small, fogged window, and he can just make out Mink’s intimidating frame and the way he tenses up from the sudden cold but is otherwise soundless. He blends in with the darkness much better, Aoba thinks, and he looks down at his own hands and thighs, both of which stand out starkly in comparison. "You glow in the dark," Mink had once teased him. He smiles openly at the memory knowing that Mink won’t see his face well enough to ask why.

" _Are you thirsty_?" Mink asks instead, switching to his own language.

Aoba takes a moment to translate in his head, still nowhere near fluent despite daily practices. “ _Yes_ ,” he finally says, and Mink hands him something like a pitcher, which he rejects in disgust.

Mink sighs. “ _It’s not bath water._ ”

Unconvinced, Aoba accepts the pitcher and stares down into it.

"You’ll get dehydrated and pass out," Mink warns him. "Alcohol and sweating don’t mix."

Aoba stares for a moment longer, then finally sips at it, then gulps, not realising how thirsty he really was. “ _Thank you._ ”

An hour passes, and after several breaks into the smaller, cooler room, Aoba and Mink have spent enough time quietly in each others’ presences to call it a night and wander back home with the help of a waning moon peeking from between tree branches. Aoba laments letting his hair get cold during the walk, and Mink chides him gently for not drying off properly beforehand, then follows it up with tea and a blanket — another thing Aoba has gotten used to. The way Mink has maintained such a gruff personality but contrasts it with gentleness and thoughtful gestures took some adjusting and a few painful misunderstandings to come to terms with, but Aoba eventually grew to love Mink’s way of communicating. "Actions speak louder than words,” was certainly something he’d grown accustomed to having been raised with a grandmother like Tae, at least.

Another hour passes, and Aoba is asleep on the couch. Mink takes their cups to clean and leaves them up on the rack to dry, checks the fire in the living area one last time, and hoists his lover up into his arms to carry him off to the bedroom. Aoba hardly moves until he’s laid down, and when he does it’s a stupidly endearing look on his face that makes Mink wonder if he’ll wake up and say something lovely. Aoba doesn’t even open his eyes, though, when he says, “I’ll make a housewife out of you, yet,” and smiles to himself.

Mink is surprised by his humor but nonetheless cracks a small smile, and, with his usual tone of quiet exasperation, tells him he’s more trouble than he’s worth. He then kisses his hair and moves to kneel at his altar nearby.

He prays and thanks the gods for all the trouble they’ve given him.

**Author's Note:**

> This could probably take place in the same universe I have in my head for Settle for Second Best?? although it would be quite some time down the road, probably way after the point I want to end it.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Support means a lot to me, especially when it comes to this pairing. Mink fans gotta stick together.


End file.
